Internet Research Agency

The Internet Research Agency, also known as Glavset, was a Saint Petersburg-based Russian company which engaged in online influence operations on behalf of Russian business and political interests. It was founded in mid-2013 in the historic Olgino district of Saint Petersburg, and it began working for the Russian government and intelligence services in around 2014. It criticized opposition politician Alexei Navalny and his sponsors, criticized Ukrainian and American politicians and foreign policies, praised Vladimir Putin and the policy of the Russian Federation, and praised and defended Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. In 2015, Glavset hired an actor - wearing a uniform similar to the US Army uniform - to shoot a Quran in a video which stirred up anger against the United States; the man turned out to be a barman who wore a widely-accessible uniform from Russia which was mistaken for a US uniform. They also attempted to frame the Azov Battalion for the shootdown of a Malaysian Airlines plane over eastern Ukraine by making an Azov Battalion video threatening the Netherlands for organizing the referendum on the Ukraine-European Union Association Agreement. From 2014 to 2017, Glavset published anti-vaccination propaganda, they published a hoax about a chemicals plant explosion in Louisiana in September 2014, they posted false information about the spread of ebola to Atlanta, exacerbated racial tensions in the USA by promoting both pro-Trump and pro-Black Lives Matter propaganda, and influenced the 2016 presidential election.